The Donor House: Robert: Getting Leah to the House

Wrapping an arm around his sister, Robert did his best to keep Leah upright and walking, even though she was in pain. Normally a vampire in her position would have fallen on the first human they smelt, but she, somehow, was holding on to her ideals. In part it was because she’d been a vegetarian in her human life, which was something she seemed determined to keep on being. He knew that she would never feed from anyone who didn’t have a choice, so he was doing the only thing he thought might work by taking her to the donor house, and by doing that he knew he could never be the vampire he had been before.

Sighing, Robert tightened his arm around Leah. Most other vampires would have left her to die and he probably would have done the same thing before, but there was something about her, about the way she held onto who she’d been as a human, that made him feel guilty for embracing who his creator wanted him to be. He didn’t know why, because he’d never wanted to be a vampire, but he’d let himself get sucked into the lifestyle, and it had been easy until she walked into his life.

“It’s not much further,” Robert said, telling himself that as much as Leah, because he was beginning to get hungry. It had been three days since they left their creator behind, and he knew he needed to feed soon, but he wasn’t going to grab someone off the street the way he had before. “I can see the house now, so all we need to do is keep walking and we’ll be there soon.”

“How did she expect me to eat a human when I won’t eat a cow?” Leah muttered, her voice little more than a whisper.

“I don’t know.” Robert wondered if it was possible to tell if a human was vegetarian from their blood. “Maybe she thought you’d just embrace being a vampire.”

Leah shook her head. “Don’t want to be a vampire.”

“Would you really prefer to be dead?”

A tear trickled down her cheek. “Want to be human.”

“Sorry, but there’s no way back. Your choices are vampire or death.”

“Do you need a hand?” a male voice asked, making him jump.

“That would be fabulous.” Then Robert smelt the blood of the person offering. “Take my sister. She’s stronger than I am and won’t feed from you. I… I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“If you’re hungry then you need to get to the house as soon as possible. I’ve dealt with hungry vampire before, so I will be okay, but I’m not so certain about you and it’s obvious your sister needs you.”

“I…”

“Get in the back. Both of you, before you can’t.”

Nodding, Robert did the only thing he could and got in the back of the car. The scent of human blood was almost too much for him, but he held on for his sister, tightening his grip on Leah as they made their way to the donor house. It took them seconds compared to the minutes it would have taken them, if he’d had to keep carrying her, so he was grateful for the lift, and he was even more grateful when they got there to find a group of people outside waiting for them.

“SOS text,” the human explained. “Alice created them and they’ve been a lifesaver more than once.”

“Thank you for helping us.”

“Just make her proud.” The human smiled at Robert in the rear view mirror. “I’ll see you again, if you manage to fit in here.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.